Bombing Suspect, in Hospital Bed, Is Ordered Held Without Bail

In a brief court appearance held via videoconference from a hospital room, the Brooklyn man accused of detonating a homemade pipe bomb inside a crowded subway tunnel in Manhattan was ordered held without bail on Wednesday by a federal magistrate judge.
The defendant, Akayed Ullah, lying in a bed with his head elevated slightly so that he could look into the camera, was subdued but appeared to be listening attentively as the judge asked whether he could see her. “Yes, ma’am, I can see you,” he said.
Mr. Ullah, 27, an immigrant from Bangladesh, was charged on Tuesday with five charges, including use of weapons of mass destruction, providing material support to the Islamic State and bombing a place of public use. As the judge, Katharine H. Parker of Federal District Court in Manhattan, advised Mr. Ullah of his rights and summarized the charges, he nodded occasionally, his face looking dour but otherwise expressionless. At times, he seemed to close his eyes briefly.
Mr. Ullah was being held at Bellevue Hospital Center while he recovers from injuries suffered when he set off the crude explosive device, which was made with screws, Christmas tree lights and a nine-volt battery, and was affixed to his torso with plastic zip ties.
Mr. Ullah had no visible injuries as he lay in the bed, although almost his entire body was hidden beneath a white covering. According to a criminal complaint filed against Mr. Ullah, he admitted after his arrest that he had built the pipe bomb and carried out the attack “for the Islamic State.”
He told investigators that he had hoped “to terrorize as many people as possible,” and timed the attack for a workday “because he believed that there would be more people,” the complaint said.
The complaint said Mr. Ullah had for several years viewed ISIS propaganda online, including a video that instructed followers, if they could not travel overseas to join ISIS, to carry out attacks “in their homelands.”
About a year ago, Mr. Ullah began researching how to build explosives and in recent weeks, he began to collect the materials needed to construct the bomb, the complaint noted. It said he built the pipe bomb about a week ago in his apartment in Brooklyn.
During the videoconference hearing, two lawyers stood by Mr. Ullah’s bedside, while two assistant United States attorneys and Judge Parker remained in the courtroom.
On the issue of bail, one prosecutor, Shawn G. Crowley, declared, “The government seeks detention.”